Citi's London Office Visited By Fed, Treasury Investigators

Either the Fed and the OCC are unaware of this thing called "computers" which allows them to find out what a bank's trading desk somewhere, anywhere in the world has done at any point in the past 30 or so years, or they really felt the need to stretch their legs around London's Canary Wharf, or they heard very good news about Citi's seafood buffet at its London HQ, but whatever the reason Reuters reports that "the U.S. Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have sent investigators to Citigroup's London headquarters as part of an international investigation into alleged manipulation of the global currency market, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday."

[The visit] comes after Citi last week fired its head of European spot foreign exchange trading Rohan Ramchandani, following a prolonged period on leave.

The Fed and OCC officials, who have been at Citi's Canary Wharf office in London this week, are at the preliminary stage of information-gathering and their presence is "independent" of Ramchandani's sacking, the source said. The Federal Reserve and OCC, which is an independent bureau of the U.S. Treasury, both declined to comment. A spokesman for Citigroup also declined to comment.

Last year, Britain's Financial Conduct Authority began a formal investigation into possible manipulation in the $5.3 trillion-a-day global FX market. The U.S. Justice Department is also engaged in an active investigation of possible manipulation of the market, the world's largest.

We eagerly look forward to the Fed's Yelp review of the various food options at Citi's Canary Wharf office.